Live updates US begins military drawdown at Kabul airport Biden to stick to Aug 31 withdrawal deadline

The United States has begun to reduce its military presence at Kabul airport as President Biden seeks to stick to the Aug. 31 deadline for withdrawing from Afghanistan.

Biden announced Tuesday afternoon that the United States is on track to leave Afghanistan by the end of the month. A defense official told The Post that some troops not critical to the evacuation mission have been removed already. The United States sent thousands of additional troops to Kabul this month to assist with evacuating Americans and Afghan allies.

As evacuations ramped up, Biden told Group of Seven leaders at a virtual meeting Tuesday morning that the United States is “on pace” to end the mission on schedule. Some U.S. allies have expressed concern about the Aug. 31 deadline, however.

Biden said Tuesday that he has asked the Pentagon and the State Department to prepare contingency plans “to adjust the timetable, should that become necessary.” He earlier suggested that the United States might extend its stay, though the Taliban has rejected that idea.

The Taliban, which assumed power in Afghanistan last week, is still allowing foreign nationals to leave, spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said, but is stopping Afghan nationals from reaching the airport.

Here’s what to know:

Fighters holed up in the northern Panjshir Valley, the last part of Afghanistan still outside Taliban control, want a negotiated resolution to the standoff, an aide in the anti-Taliban stronghold said. Delegations from the two sides met Tuesday, according to another person in the fighter’s camp.

The United States and allied countries flew nearly 21,700 people out of Kabul in a 24-hour window ending Tuesday, the White House said. Since Aug. 14, the United States has helped evacuate 70,700 people.

U.S. lawmakers Tuesday urged the secretaries of state and defense, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the director of national intelligence to appeal to Biden to reconsider plans to stick with Aug. 31 withdrawal. But both Republicans and Democrats agreed that if there are still American citizens left in Afghanistan trying to escape, the United States should not stick to the deadline â€" regardless of the risk involved in staying.

Key update‘The sooner we can finish, the better,’ Biden says of U.S. mission in Afghanistan; 70,700 evacuated since Aug. 14Link copied

Biden said Tuesday that the United States is “on pace” to finish its mission in Afghanistan by Aug. 31, the deadline he set, with 70,700 Americans and others who have assisted the United States evacuated since Aug. 14.

“The sooner we can finish, the better,” Biden said in remarks at the White House. “Each day of operations brings a risk to our troops. But the completion by August 31st depends upon the Taliban continuing to cooperate and allow access to the airport.”

Biden insisted that the United States will continue to “get people out as efficiently and safely as possible,” while the number of Americans still in Afghanistan remains unclear. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said earlier Tuesday that the evacuations would end before Aug. 31 to allow the military to draw down its forces, a process that has already begun.

While adhering to his Aug. 31 deadline, Biden said he had asked the Pentagon and the State Department for contingency plans if it becomes necessary to extend the timetable.

“I’m determined to ensure that we complete our mission. … I’m also mindful of the increasing risks that I’ve been briefed on and the need to factor those risks when there are real and significant challenges that we also have to take into consideration the longer we stay, starting with the acute and growing risk of being attacked by a terrorist group known as ISIS-K, an ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan, which is a sworn enemy of the Taliban, as well,” he said. ISIS-K refers to the Islamic State in Khorasan, the Syria-based group’s Afghanistan contingent.

Biden also said any refugees coming to the United States will have undergone background checks and pleaded for unity on the issue, with Republicans divided on the handling of refugees.

“We must all work together to resettle thousands of Afghans who ultimately qualify for refugee status,” Biden said.

Amnesty International USA criticized Biden for adhering to his deadline.

“The U.S. government still has the opportunity to turn back and help save lives at risk. The U.S. government should continue to negotiate to proceed with evacuations for as long as necessary to evacuate all of the country’s most vulnerable,” said Paul O’Brien, executive director of Amnesty International USA.

White House says evacuations will end before Aug. 31 to give military time to draw down U.S. forcesLink copied

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said evacuations of Americans and others who aided the U.S. effort in Afghanistan will end before Aug. 31 to give the military time to draw down U.S. forces.

Asked by reporters whether the evacuations would conclude before the deadline, Psaki said yes and “that there would need to be time to wind down the presence.” She said it was necessary to assess the threat of the Islamic State to the military and to ensure cooperation with the Taliban, which has rejected Biden’s suggestion that the United States might stay beyond the deadline.

“It also includes the essential aspect of having the Taliban’s coordination continue over the coming days so we can facilitate as many people as we’ve been getting out,” Psaki said at the daily White House briefing.

The United States has evacuated and helped in the evacuation of approximately 58,700 people since Aug. 14. The military has ramped up its evacuations in recent days.

At the briefing, Psaki told reporters that U.S. citizens in Afghanistan unable to get out should reach out to her.

“If any of you are hearing from American citizens who can’t reach us, give me their contact information, and we will get in contact with them,” she said. “If you are an American stranded in Afghanistan, or if you know of an American stranded in Afghanistan, my DMs are wide open.”

Key updateU.S. starts reducing troops at Kabul airport as Taliban deadline loomsLink copied

President Biden is expected to announce Tuesday afternoon that he is ordering the U.S. military to complete its withdrawal from Afghanistan by the end of the month, with a reduction of troops beginning slowly but immediately, a senior administration official said.

The plan will meet Taliban requirements that the U.S. military leave by Aug. 31, while leaving open a window of a few days if needed. The administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, noted that the White House had released a statement in the morning stating that Biden wanted contingencies in the plan that could extend it a few more days.

The new plan appears to have the president splitting the difference between announcing a hard withdrawal date and disclosing a definite extension of evacuation operations into September. Another defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said that the military is working to complete the withdrawal by Aug. 31 but also sees a reality in which it takes a few more days to do so.

A defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said some troops deemed not mission critical for the evacuation have already left. The Pentagon has said 5,800 troops were on the ground for evacuation operations at their peak, but “more than 5,000” remain, the official said, declining to say how many have been pulled out.

The administration official said that evacuation flights should continue for days. Between U.S. military flights and flights involving other aircraft, more than 21,000 people were evacuated through the Kabul airport Monday, Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor said at the Pentagon on Tuesday morning.

Airbnb to offer free temporary housing to 20,000 Afghan refugees fleeing Taliban takeoverLink copied

Vacation rental company Airbnb said Tuesday that it would begin offering free accommodation around the world to some 20,000 refugees forced to flee Afghanistan amid the Taliban’s rapid rise to power.

“The displacement and resettlement of Afghan refugees in the U.S. and elsewhere is one of the biggest humanitarian crises of our time,” Airbnb’s co-founder and head of community, Ben Chesky, confirmed in a series of tweets.

“We feel a responsibility to step up,” he said as the United States and NATO forces continued their efforts to evacuate those most at risk from the country.

The company said that they would cover the costs of the initiative and that they would also rely on donations to its Refugee Fund.

In a statement, Airbnb said that there was “tremendous need” for the initiative due to the “fast evolving” crisis in Afghanistan.

Key updateTalks held between Taliban and resistance fighters in Panjshir ValleyLink copied

Fighters holed up in the last part of Afghanistan still outside Taliban control want a negotiated resolution to the standoff, an aide in the anti-Taliban stronghold said, although he vowed they would fight back against any attacks.

A meeting was held Tuesday between the fighters, who are located outside of Taliban control in the northern Panjshir Valley, and a delegation sent by the Taliban, according to another source in the fighter’s camp.

Taliban militants had closed in on the only Afghan province that remains out of their hands, deploying to the edges of the area to crush resistance to their rule. A Taliban spokesman said the militants had encircled fighters there Monday but wanted to negotiate rather than wage a battle.

Along with officials from the U.S.-backed government that collapsed in the face of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, leaders in the valley in recent weeks have rallied forces to fight off the Islamist militants.

The leaders in the Panjshir Valley opposed to the Taliban include Ahmad Massoud, son of a storied military commander who fought the Soviet Union and, later, the Taliban before being assassinated, and Amrullah Saleh, vice president of the ousted government.

Hamid Saifi, an aide to Massoud in the Panjshir, said fighters in the province would not surrender to the Taliban. “We prefer to have a peaceful outcome in a dignified way,” he said.

He told The Washington Post that Taliban militants have not entered the valley but were massing nearby.

“There are efforts to end this standoff through peaceful means,” he said. “Some people from Kabul are making efforts to resolve it peacefully. And we also want peace but don’t want to live under someone’s flag.”

Massoud wrote in an op-ed in The Post this month that his fighters have built up an arsenal in recent years in the event of a Taliban reemergence. He said Afghan army soldiers and local militiamen have also joined them. Yet it remains unclear how many anti-Taliban fighters are in the valley or how much of a resistance they could put up.

Military ramps up evacuation flights again as deadline loomsLink copied

Senior Pentagon officials said on Tuesday that an estimated 21,600 people were evacuated from Afghanistan over the previous day, marking a new high, as a deadline for the U.S. military to depart by the end of the month looms.

Army Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor said 32 C-17s and five C-130s had departed Kabul airport in the previous 24 hours, moving 12,700 people out of the country. Coalition and partner aircraft evacuated an additional 8,900 people, for a daily total of 21,600.

The numbers marked a high-water mark for the multi-day evacuation effort and come just days before withdrawal operations must begin for the military to meets its Aug. 31 deadline.

President Biden is facing pressure from lawmakers and U.S. allies to extend the deadline to ensure the evacuation effort succeeds, but the Taliban threatened Tuesday that there will be a reaction if the U.S. military stays beyond the end of the month.

One point of uncertainty that remains is the number of American citizens still in Afghanistan. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said that “several thousand” have been evacuated but declined to be more specific. U.S. officials have estimated that 10,000 to 15,000 Americans were in Afghanistan when the Kabul government fell.

“We remain committed to getting any and all Americans that want to leave, to get them out,” Kirby said. “We still believe, certainly now that we have been able to increase the capacity and the flow … that we have the ability to get that done by the end of the month.”

Key updateTrudeau says Canadian military personnel ‘ready to stay’ in Afghanistan beyond Aug. 31Link copied

TORONTO â€" Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday said Canada is “ready to stay” in Afghanistan beyond Aug. 31, joining some European allies in expressing concern about the Biden administration’s self-imposed deadline to leave the airport in Kabul.

“I emphasized that Canada is ready to stay beyond the 31st deadline if it’s at all possible,” Trudeau told reporters in Hamilton, Ontario, speaking after a virtual meeting of the Group of Seven leaders, “because we want to save as many people as possible, and Canadians are ready to work to try and do that.”

Trudeau, who last week called a snap federal election for next month, had been under pressure to act more quickly to evacuate Afghans who assisted Canada’s decade-long combat mission and its embassy there.

The country has evacuated more than 2,200 people from Afghanistan since the beginning of the month, according to its immigration minister. Some evacuees on Canadian flights include Afghans bound for allied countries. Canada estimates that there are roughly 6,000 Afghans and their families who are eligible to come to Canada under a special immigration program for them.

But Afghans, Canadian expatriates and their advocates have complained that red tape is slowing efforts to evacuate them and that their repeated requests for additional information from Canadian officials about how to get to Canada have been met with silence.

Canadian officials said this week that Canadian Armed Forces personnel are in place at the airport in Kabul and that special operations personnel are working outside the airport to get evacuees to the airport and onto Canada-bound flights.

The European Union’s two presidents said they also pressed Biden on the Aug. 31 withdrawal timeline during the meeting. European Council President Charles Michel said he and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen were two of “several” premiers to express concerns, but he declined to say publicly how Biden responded.

“A lot of leaders, including Ursula and myself, have noted concerns,” Michel said at a joint news briefing after the meeting. “We’ve got the 31st as a deadline, and we want to know what’s going to happen after that.”

Key updateLawmakers to Biden advisers: Don’t leave by Aug. 31 if the evacuation mission isn’t done Link copied

House lawmakers Tuesday urged the secretaries of state and defense, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the director of national intelligence to appeal to President Biden to reconsider plans to stick with Aug. 31 for the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan if more Americans and Afghans eligible for extraction are still on the ground.

The quartet of senior national security advisers huddled with lawmakers for nearly two hours Tuesday, as the United States faces a deadline to leave Afghanistan in just a week. Members emerging expressed a variety of opinions about the evacuation effort, pointing fingers of blame in different directions â€" including sometimes at the briefers themselves.

But both Republicans and Democrats agreed that if there are still American citizens left in Afghanistan trying to escape, the United States should not stick to the deadline â€" regardless of the risk involved in staying.

“A major theme, a major comment, a major point that we all tried to make: urging them to do more to advocate with the president to extend the deadline,” Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) said upon exiting the briefing.

The briefers â€" Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines â€" refused to go beyond what Biden has said, according to people in the room.

A senior Biden administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private planning told The Washington Post on Tuesday that the White House was planning to stay with the original deadline.

Tuesday’s all-members briefing was the first classified update that many House lawmakers have received on the situation. Dozens lined up to query the briefers, with many asking about the situation at the Kabul airport, plans for the extraction of American citizens and Afghan nationals who are eligible for evacuation, and the threat of terrorist attacks â€" especially from the Islamic State.

The pace of evacuations has been steadily accelerating in the past several days, going from an average of about 2,000 people per day last week to over 21,000 on Tuesday, Kabul time. But members are still doubtful that it is possible to evacuate all remaining Americans and Afghans â€" many of whom are stranded in Kabul and beyond â€" and dismantle the U.S. military presence at Hamid Karzai International Airport in just a week’s time.

Following a separate classified House intelligence committee briefing Monday night, Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) said it was “very unlikely” that all U.S. citizens, Special Immigrant Visa holders and other approved categories of Afghans would be able to depart that swiftly.

“It’s hard for me to see that being fully complete by the end of the month,” Schiff told reporters.

Key updateBoris Johnson: G-7 leaders have agreed on a ‘road map’ for engaging with Taliban Link copied

LONDON â€" British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that world leaders had agreed on a “road map” for engaging with the Taliban going forward, and that their “number one condition” was for the Taliban to allow for “safe passage” for those fleeing the country after the Aug. 31 deadline.

Speaking after he convened an emergency Group of Seven (G-7) countries meeting Tuesday afternoon, the British leader said that the group agreed on “not just a joint approach to dealing with the evacuation, but also a road map for the way in which we’re going to engage with the Taliban.”

“The number one condition we’re setting, as G-7, is that they’ve got to guarantee, right the way through â€" through August 31st and beyond â€" safe passage for those who want to come out.”

“Some of them will say that they don’t accept that. Some of them, I hope, will see the sense in that” because the G-7 has “very considerable leverage â€" economic, diplomatic and political.”

Britain and other allies have made it clear that they wanted an extension of the evacuation efforts beyond President Biden’s Aug. 31 deadline to allow more time to airlift the thousands who are trying to get out of Kabul.

When he was asked whether he had failed to persuade Biden, Johnson said: “The immediate phase of the evacuation is actually behind a very considerable success by the military.” He said that the U.K. had evacuated 9,000 people from Kabul in the past 10 days. He added: “I am totally realistic about the Taliban and I don’t think that anybody is going to pretend that this is anything other than a very difficult situation.

“But that doesn’t mean that we should ignore the leverage that we have,” he added.

When pressed on what leverage the G-7 had, he said: “If those huge funds are going to be unfrozen eventually for use by the government and people of Afghanistan, then what we’re saying is, Afghanistan can’t lurch back into becoming a breeding ground of terror, Afghanistan can’t become a narco state, girls have got to be educated up to the age of 18.”

The meeting, which was held virtually, was attended by leaders of the G-7 countries â€" the United States, U.K., Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan â€" as well as the general secretaries of NATO and the United Nations.

Biden administration to offer coronavirus vaccines to Afghan refugeesLink copied

The Biden administration is working on offering coronavirus vaccinations to Afghan refugees who arrive in the United States after fleeing the Taliban takeover of their country, the White House said.

“They are being tested, and we are working through offering vaccines and what that process will look like,” press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Monday. “I hope to have more of an update on that for you in the next day or two.”

Army Gen. Stephen R. Lyons, commander of U.S. Transportation Command, said in a separate news briefing Monday that efforts to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus were underway for both U.S. crew and Afghans during the evacuations.

“We shouldn’t forget that we’re doing this operation in the middle of a pandemic,” Lyons said. “There is some screening that occurs before they load … There are resources being applied to further test the evacuees upon arrival to these various temporary safe havens.”

In Texas, Rep. Veronica Escobar (D), tweeted that Afghans arriving at the Fort Bliss base were undergoing medical screenings with “plans for on-site vaccinations against infectious diseases, including COVID-19.” Escobar added that over 650 individuals had arrived as of Saturday.

Jake Sullivan bungles a line about visa processing for AfghansLink copied

“When we took office in January, the Trump administration had not processed a single special immigrant visa since March of 2020, in nearly a year.”

At a news briefing Monday, Sullivan asserted that not a single Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) had been processed by the Trump administration since March 2020. That comment jumped out at us because a homeland security adviser to former vice president Mike Pence had charged that the Trump administration, specifically immigration hawk Stephen Miller, sought restrictions on the program â€" a claim Miller has denied.

State Department reports show that hundreds of SIVs were processed in the last nine months of the Trump administration, although at a much slower rate. The White House says Sullivan misspoke â€" that he meant to refer to interviews. That’s a line the State Department offered on Aug. 20: “When we took office, not a single SIV interview had been conducted since March of 2020.”

But that may not be accurate either.

Taliban says women should stay home for now and that Afghans must not leave the countryLink copied

At a wide-ranging news conference in Kabul on Tuesday, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid offered a set of reassurances, calling on rebels against the former insurgency to lay down their arms, praising foreign diplomats and aid workers who have stayed in the country and suggesting that any restrictions on women in the workplace were only temporary.

He saved his harshest words for the United States, repeating the Taliban position that the group would reject any extension of the U.S. deadline of Aug. 31 to leave the country. Mujahid also said that the United States was encouraging Afghans to leave and so the Taliban was blocking them from reaching the Kabul airport.

“We are asking the Americans [to] please change your policy and don’t encourage Afghans to leave,” he said, adding that U.S. forces were acting dangerously and using gunfire to control crowds.

“We have stopped Afghan nationals from going because the crowd [has grown],” Mujahid said. “There is a danger that people might die from a stampede.”

The Taliban has held semiregular news conferences since assuming control of Afghanistan on Aug. 15, marking a media-savvy shift for a group that has targeted journalists in the past. Mujahid has used the media briefings to present a more cooperative side of the group, taking questions from foreign news organizations as well as independent Afghan outlets such as Tolo News, despite accounts of violence in areas under Taliban control.

Speaking Tuesday, Mujahid played down reports of an anti-Taliban counterinsurgency in the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul. “Our policy is to finish war in our country,” the spokesman said. He suggested that Taliban fighters have tried to contact the resistance group’s leaders and called on them to prevent Afghan military hardware from being taken for “private use.”

Asked about restrictions on women, Mujahid said the problem should be resolved once security forces are trained. Taliban fighters were “not trained on how to deal with women, how to speak to women,” and so women were told to stay home for the time being. He said women will still receive their salaries and will be asked to come back to work “when we have a system in place.”

Dismissing accounts of retaliation in parts of the country controlled by the Taliban, such as incidents raised by the top U.N. human rights official on Tuesday, Mujahid denied reports that the Taliban was seeking out those who worked with the former government or the United States. “We want [people] to have peace of mind,” he said. “There is nobody being followed. There is no list.”

Although the United States is expected to decide Tuesday whether to extend an Aug. 31 deadline to leave Kabul, the Taliban position was clear, Mujahid said. “We are not going to allow Afghans to leave, and we will not extend the deadline,” he said.

All E.U. staff and diplomats have been evacuated from Afghanistan, bloc saysLink copied

BRUSSELS â€" The European Union has completed the evacuation of its staffers and diplomats from Afghanistan, a milestone that comes as the delicate multiday mission nears its end, a bloc spokesperson said on Tuesday.

The evacuated staff, who are all E.U. citizens, worked for the bloc’s delegation in Kabul. A “small core team” remains on the ground at the Afghan capital’s airport to continue coordinating rescue efforts, said Peter Stano, the European Commission’s spokesperson for foreign affairs.

The job is not yet done, Stano said. The E.U. has evacuated more than 400 Afghans who worked for the delegation, but some still remain stuck in Kabul. Officials have declined to disclose the exact number, citing the sensitivity of the ongoing operation.

“There are still people we are trying to get out of Kabul, and the evacuation efforts continue in close cooperation with the EU member states and other partners,” Stano said.

E.U. foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has previously said that the bloc had a list of roughly 400 Afghan employees and family members who officials were working to get out. On Tuesday morning, he posted a photo to Twitter of scores of staffers boarding a plane bound for Europe.

“Work bringing people to safety will continue,” he wrote.

For Afghan refugees, arrival in Northern Virginia comes with relief, exhaustion Link copied

Planeloads of Afghan refugees and Afghan Americans arrived in Northern Virginia on Monday, their faces showing relief and exhaustion after being harassed by Taliban fighters on the way to the Kabul airport and, in some cases, going without much food for days.

After landing at Dulles International Airport, many of the families boarded buses ferrying them to the nearby Dulles Expo Center in Fairfax County, a 100,000-square-foot facility meant for business conventions that has been converted into a temporary shelter.

The families were waiting to be sent to military installations in the Washington region and elsewhere in the country â€" yet another leg on a journey that, for many, included waiting several days for a flight at Kabul’s crowded airport and then being held at a refugee site in Qatar.

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